OPEN: A woman who was employed as a dental receptionist told this story:
I was on duty when an extremely nervous patient came for root canal surgery. He was brought into the examining room and made comfortable in the reclining dental chair. The dentist then injected a numbing agent around the
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Life is not meaningless, we gain meaning in life through the person of Jesus Christ.

In college one of the jobs I had was working in a medical file warehouse. Talk about mundane, boring, monotonous. These were huge warehouses that contained millions of files from hospitals all over the San Francisco Bay Area. I did one of three things: I pulled a file for a patient in a hospital
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Text: 1 Kings 17:1-7
Prayer of Illumination
Our Father in heaven . . . holy, holy, holy is your name.
As we turn to Your Word may you give us eyes to see your truth, may your give us ears to hear your voice, and may you grant us hearts that are open & receptive & responsive to you.
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We read in this passage how Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord and heard the voice of the Lord. The circumstances surrounding this experience was the death of Isaiah’s king and friend, Uzziah. We learn about king Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26.
Uzziah was a good king, until he allowed pride to
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People don’t recover from losses, they get restored by God. Everyone faces major losses in their life and then must deal with how to handle the aftermath. Often people talk about recovering from a loss. Losses however are not so much recovered from as

“How God Restores Our Losses”
Sunday, August 9, 2009
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The other day Nicole was taking out Emma’s little crib and we were replacing it with a bed. Ethan was with her when she started to take the crib out of the room. He said, “Mom, you can’t get rid
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Has your life mattered - have we finished what we are supposed to finish - have we completed Gods will for our life? Is possible to die before our time.

What have I done?
Psalm 139:13-18
I was perplexed this week by some sad news. A beautiful young woman whom I know passed away tragically at only 18 years of age. She was a Christian, raised in a Christian home and she had a loving family with brothers and sisters. I knew her when she was
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It Is Well
II Kings 4:18-37
John Shearhart
January 24, 2010
Introduction
“It Is Well” video from Bluefish
The story behind this song is sad yet inspiring. I wonder how many of us could lose so much and still say, “It is well.”
I was so struck by the background
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What do we do when it feels .as if our world is falling apart? Where do we go when it seems as if darkness .is our only companion and God is nowhere .to be found? Beloved, .the dark times of life are threshold moments. They are Advent Moments!

The Superintendent of the large Christian School... was concerned about the disarray he found in so many of the classrooms... he visited.
Papers were often strewn on the floor,... and the Student's desks... were surrounded by clutter.
Feeling strongly... that learning could not take place in
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This sermon is about Ruth and Naomi's wilderness experience through death and loss

In Need of a Redeemer
Ruth 4:13-15
When you hear the word wilderness, some of your may think about the barren landscape of the desert, others the swamp or the jungle far removed from any human being. For the Israelites, they thought of the Judean wilderness, a barren place of very little water
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Christians have the emotional and spiritual resources to cope with loss.

20110703 The Third Sunday After Pentecost - Web Site
Title: How to Grieve without Obsessing
Text: II Samuel 1 – 2:7
Thesis: Christians have the emotional and spiritual resources to cope with loss.
Introduction
On July 4, 1776, just 235 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted
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God is our strength and refuge in the gloomiest moments of our lives. Let’s run to Him for shelter from the storm, and in the case of tragedy, especially so. Pray for those affected in the Norway shootings, that they may find their refuge in God.

Text: Psalm 46
Open with me to Psalm 46.
This week, Norway has been ravaged with the shootings of over 90 children at the hands of a madman. Families are shattered, friendships irrecoverable. Though this seemed to be a politically and racially motivated crime, many sources of media call
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This is really an awesome time of the year isn’t it? I love the weather, being able to do yard work, ball games, and cook outs. Children all over the nation also love this time of year as the school year is coming to a close. Parents, teachers, coaches, and anyone that is around kids this
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KNOWING CHRIST IS OUR GREATEST GAIN (Outline)
March 29, 2009 -- LENT 5 --
Philippians 3:7-14
INTRO: Our world makes many promises of “great gain”. Recently those grand promises of great gain have become great losses. Such are the empty promises of a sinful world. Not so with the
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God does His best work in caves. When we get to the end of ourselves and have no where to look but up, then God can whisper to us in the cave, "I’m still here. I haven’t left you." When we realize He is all we want, we find out He is all we really need.

We’re going to be in the Book of First Samuel; if you have a Bible you can turn there, and we’ll get there at some point. I think that, when you’re talking about hope; the biggest problem with hope is, when we are going thru trouble, we don’t know how to kind of deal with it right? So, check it
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If you and I want to truly know Christ it’s going to cost us. Knowing Jesus requires that you and I take stock of our gains, our prestige, our very personages and like Paul, consider their worth in light of Christ. What does it mean to know Christ? What w

I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST
I want to know Christ. To say this is to commit ourselves to a monumental task that would involve the rest of our lives and would never find its completion.
When Jesus comes back, He will have a name that only He knows (Rev. 19:12). This reveals to us that all there is
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